The dawn was spectacular, pink hues thrown over the hills across the sky's blank canvas and mirrored upon the still surface below. Waves rolled softly onto the sand at the mouth of the cave, and thus it remained almost silent, a striking contrast to the cacophony of confusion that tormented the mind of it's occupant.

Eric had stayed awake for hours following last nights revelation and, when he had eventually succumbed to exhaustion, a fitful and disjointed sleep had followed. He felt ill-rested when awoken by the aching shift of his anatomy and, despite the number of questions he had, found within himself little desire to return home. In all honesty, he hadn't any idea of what to say to his mother and felt suddenly like he didn't know her at all, that the woman he had spent his entire life with was a stranger.

The journey home was a slow one, or so he made it, and still by the time Eric arrived home he found himself no closer to knowing how to broach the subject.

He pushed aside the kelp which hung limp over the entrance and his mother's arms were around him in an instant.

'Oh! My love I was starting to wonder if something had happened,' she fretted, 'are you alright?'

Untrusting of his voice, Eric nodded.

'Did you go into town?'

There passed a moment of silence, during which Nastasya pulled back, her eyes now on Eric's, though his own remained downcast.

'No,' was his quiet reply.

She took his hesitation as embarrassment, as though he felt that he had somehow failed. That, she decided, wouldn't do.

'It's not a problem my love, I just wanted to give you the option, that's all,' she reassured, cupping his cheek, 'please don't worry about it. Come, breakfast's ready.'

They sat and ate in relative silence. Any attempt that Nastasya made to initiate conversation was met with either a silent motion of the head or as brief an answer as possible. She feared that this languor was a product of illness, that the cold nights had truly taken their toll on her boy; but, when she suggested he stay home and rest, he declined decisively.

'Well then... kelp or shipwrecks?' she asked with no less concern.

Eric chose the latter, thinking it the more likely of the two to provide a necessary and much needed distraction.

When at last he was able to leave, parting ways with his mother once more, he did so with a lump in his throat, hating that everything felt so different now, hating that one moment could bring with it such a feeling of betrayal as that which burned within his chest.

A connection had formed in his mind last night, and remained there still; that his mother's banishment and supposed connection to this human could be no coincidence, and that he had been the product of this connection, which perhaps would explain why he was bound to both land and sea. Was it even possible? His mother had disclosed very little regarding the whereabouts of his father, only that he had declined to join her in exile, and that she had neither seen nor heard from him since. This had hitherto sufficed, but every truth now seemed dubious, as though all Eric thought he knew was tainted with some degree of falsity, and he left with the painstaking effort of untangling this web of lies in which he suddenly and unwittingly found himself ensnared.

The speed at which his mind raced fuelled that of his journey and, in hardly any time at all, Eric had reached the shipwrecks, their skeletal hulls littering the uneven seabed. It seemed to Eric unfair how the world could remain unchanged when his own crumbled around him; though, familiar as the sight was, this was an unpredictable place and absentmindedness would be unwise.

Eric took a series of deep breaths, steadied himself, and proceeded with caution.

It may come as a surprise that the very same day her sentence had been carried out, Ariel stole away again. Her father, in a bid to keep her near—and to further her punishment as she saw it—had designated her the duty of removing barnacles from the outer walls of the palace, a laborious task which had kept her occupied for all of fifteen minutes. She took herself to the very edge of where her work permitted her to be and, checking first to ensure that nobody observed, swam swiftly to the concealing outer fronds of the kelp forest, their limbs undulating as though possessed by a life of their own.

Here the princess paused. It had been her intention to see Eric again, having thought about him every day since their first encounter, but only now did she realise that she hadn't any idea as to where she would find him. She hadn't been paying close attention to her surroundings when she had last come across him, her only objective had been to shake off her father's guards.

The kelp forest Ariel knew to be vast, and she was certain that one could search within it for days without finding what they sought. How then, was she to find Eric?

She knew only that he resided not far from where they had last met, but where precisely that was she couldn't be certain.

The little mermaid pouted, her delicate eyebrows coming together as she considered her options; whether she should chance swimming into Eric, or pursue some other adventure for now. After much deliberation she decided upon the latter, though not wholly satisfied with her choice, but having been restricted to the palace for so long she wasn't about to risk losing this momentary freedom by searching for something she may not find.

Something she knew she would find was the shipwrecks and, with them, the obscure human artefacts that she so delighted in.

It was a journey which she had taken often and knew well, and as she followed the edge of the kelp forest, her mind once again found Eric. She hoped that her absence hadn't disheartened him, after all she had promised to return, and still had every intention of doing so. She felt then a little arrogant for presuming that he had thought of her at all; but there had been something in his eyes when he had asked whether she would return, some hopefulness, and she had felt a sort of kinship with him stronger than that which she shared with certain members of her own family. She wondered whether he had felt it to; secretary she hoped he had, for although she seldom thought of boys—certainly not to the extent some of her sisters did—his features had struck her as handsome.

He occupied her thoughts until the sunken wrecks of human vessels loomed ahead of her. It was unnaturally quiet here, and dark too, a world away from the celestial glow and teeming waters of Atlantica. A great number of merfolk believed the shipwrecks to be haunted, and certainly countless humans had lost their lives here, but this wasn't something that deterred the youngest daughter of Triton as she navigated her way silently through the shadows.

When she had first discovered these wrecks she hadn't dared to venture within them, but when she had found the courage to do so what greeted her there filled her heart and mind with wonder. Tucked away amongst the decrepit vessels, waiting in various states of decay to be uncovered, were all manner of human objects, the purpose of which remained a mystery.

Ariel had begun collecting those she found to be of particular interest, storing them in a grotto she had happened upon on one of her adventures. The more ships she had explored, the more unusual items she had found, and over the past three years she had expanded her collection to the hundreds. It was a secret pastime which enthralled her, and she had spent many hours trying to figure out the use of all she came across. She wished for some way of knowing what each object was, and pictured herself often with a human friend who could inform her; though this, of course, was merely a flight of fancy.

In all her expeditions to these shipwrecks, Ariel hadn't once seen another of her kind, shark and octopus dwelled here, crustaceans too, but not mer-people. Understandable then was Ariel's bewilderment when another passed across her field of vision. At first she thought the dark shape to be predatory, and retreated quickly behind a ship's mast, it being at least twice her width and thus easily concealing the princess. However, when she—feeling suitably hidden—peered around the wooden cylinder, the shape before her was undoubtably of her own species, though appearing only as a silhouette from such a distance.

She wondered briefly whether she had failed to slip away unnoticed, and that her father had sent somebody to follow her; but, no sooner had the thought entered her mind, did the individual dart into one of the shipwrecks and disappear from sight.

So, either her pursuer was no good at his job, or this particular merman—for a merman it had been, she was sure of it—was merely going about his business, unaware of her presence.

What business could somebody have out here? wondered Ariel.

Curiosity overcame her then, as it often did, and she found herself making for the very same wreck into which the stranger had vanished. Was is possible that somebody shared in her intrigue for human stuff?

She approached the ship silently, and guided herself down into it's body through a square opening on the upper deck. It wasn't a vessel she recognised, for in truth the vast majority looked the same, stripped of any defining characteristic by the relentless march of time. Some possessed figureheads by which they could be identified, but any distint colourings or intricacies were muted by depth and hidden beneath the buildup of algae.

As Ariel descended, she paused and allowed her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, her remaining senses heightened by this temporary loss of vision. The only sound came from somewhere before her, a quiet scraping the likes of which her own endeavours often produced, as though the stranger were searching for something.

Vision returning, Ariel followed the sound of rummaging, able to see now the door to the room that produced it.

'Hello?' she called, barely having to raise her voice for it to ring clearly.

The shuffling ceased in an instant, but there came no reply.

Afraid that she may have startled the stranger into leaving, she rushed forward into the room, and there greeted her the very face that had consumed her thoughts this past month, as confused as it had been the first time she saw it.

Both she and Eric remained motionless, heartbeats counting away the seconds, each as shocked as the other at meeting again so unexpectedly. The latter, occupied as his mind was, blinked hard to assure himself that this wasn't some apparition of his own making.

'What are you doing here?'

They spoke in unison, much to their surprise, and each with the very same question upon their lips. Frowns turned then to easy smiles, for there could be no question that they were pleased to see one another.

'You first,' Ariel prompted.

It took Eric a moment to gather his senses. 'My mother and I use what we can from the shipwrecks,' he explained, though his mind still remained elsewhere, 'there isn't much in the way of shops out here.'

Ariel briefly wondered why they didn't just go to Atlantica for what they required, it wasn't too far off after all, before realising what his words suggested. Her lips parted in awe. 'Do you... do you what everything is?'

Eric nodded. 'My mother does, I suppose I just grew up with it.'

Once again his mind wandered, knowing now where his mother had learned the use for human items and feeling ever more downcast that she had kept so much from him. His inner turmoil didn't show though.

Ariel, for her part, was nothing less than ecstatic, for not only did she no longer have to choose between finding Eric and exploring the shipwrecks, but her new friend also possessed the capability to satisfy, in part, her thirst for knowledge.

'Will you teach me?' she asked breathlessly, albeit a little timidly. Her admission to this pastime had been met thus far only with scorn and disapproval, and a part of her feared that Eric's reaction would be the same.

In truth he was taken slightly aback at first, but the princess's eyes sparkled, and Eric found himself once again captured by her enthusiasm and sense of wonder. How could he refuse when she looked at him with such innocent hopefulness?

He agreed and, unable to contain her delight, Ariel clasped her hands before her and spun about the room, crimson hair flowing freely behind her. Eric too smiled, his own self-pity seeming to melt away, and he was certain that no matter how wide the world, he would never see beauty equivalent to that which now danced before him, magnified by the pursuit of what was clearly a deep passion.

Only minutes ago Eric's day had stretched out long before him, consisting only of hours during which he would wander aimlessly, looking without seeing what lay hidden amongst the shipwrecks, and theorising until his head hurt. Truthfully, the princess's return couldn't have come at a better moment; and, for the first time in as long as he could remember, the day offered something other than repetition and solitude.

'So,' he began, glancing about the room, 'where do we start?'